Disable monitoring of virtual machines in Azure Monitor

This article describes how to disable monitoring for a virtual machine in Azure Monitor. This may be to remove monitoring entirely or to disable collection of certain data.

Remove DCR associations

As described in Enable VM monitoring in Azure Monitor, data collection is enabled by an association between the VM and a data collection rule (DCR). You can stop data collection from one or more DCRs by removing their association with the VM. While multiple machines can use a common DCR, each has a separate DCR association.

dcraName=$(az monitor data-collection rule association list \
    --resource "/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/<vm-name>" \
    --query "[?dataCollectionRuleId=='/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/microsoft.insights/datacollectionrules/<dcr-name>'].name | [0]" -o tsv)
az monitor data-collection rule association delete \
    --resource "/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/<vm-name>" \
    --name $dcraName

$dcraName = (Get-AzDataCollectionRuleAssociation -TargetResourceId "/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/<vm-name>" | where {$_.DataCollectionRuleId -eq "/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/microsoft.insights/datacollectionrules/<dcr-name>"}).Name
remove-AzDataCollectionRuleAssociation -TargetResourceId "/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/<vm-name>" -AssociationName $dcraName   

Remove agents

Only remove the Azure Monitor agent if you're no longer using it for any other monitoring purposes. Removing the agent completely disables all monitoring of the client operating system and workloads. Remove the Dependency agent from the VM if you're no longer using the deprecated Map feature.

• See Uninstall Azure Monitor Agent.
• See Uninstall Dependency Agent.

Remove VM insights solution

VM insights using the Log Analytics agent (deprecated) required a solution added to the Log Analytics workspace. This solution is no longer required for Azure Monitor agent. Remove this solution if you no longer use the deprecated agent. If you never used the Log Analytics agent, this solution won't exist in your workspace.

1. From your Log Analytics workspace in the Azure portal, select Legacy solutions from the left menu.
2. In the list of solutions, select VMInsights(workspace name). On the Overview page for the solution, select Delete.

Related content

• Enable VM monitoring in Azure Monitor - Re-enable monitoring when needed
• Monitor virtual machines in Azure - Overview of VM monitoring capabilities
• Data collection rules in Azure Monitor - Understand data collection rules and associations
• Azure Monitor Agent overview - Learn about the Azure Monitor agent

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